By Jim Knippenberg
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Stephen J. Cannell is confused: "Really, I don't know what I am. I guess I'm a writer - I've had three books published in the past 12 months. But I also have eight movies in the works that I'm producing. And I do acting jobs, too."

Stephen J. Cannell

Cannell, the same Cannell who produced such TV hits as Rockford Files, The A-Team, 21 Jump Street, The Commish and Wiseguy, was in town to sign and discuss Vertical Coffin, his 10th novel and fourth in the series starring Los Angeles homicide detective Shane Scully.

Cincinnati was the halfway point on a 15-city tour Cannell was doing on his own Gulfstream jet.

"That's when I sleep. It has a bedroom, so as soon as I leave a city, I sleep," he says. "But sometimes I can't. I get pretty keyed up at a really good signing because it tells me people like the book."

String of best-sellers

No surprise there. Most of his books have hit the best-seller lists within a week or so of publication. Vertical Coffin (the title is what SWAT team members call a doorway because they're most vulnerable when passing through one) probably will as well.

It's good enough to hit the list. And it's real enough. In fact, it's based on an actual incident that occurred in 2001 in Los Angeles County, when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms asked the LA Sheriff's department to serve a warrant, but didn't tell them the guy had a garage full of weapons. The deputy serving the warrant was shot, then ATF arrived and burned down the house with the perp in it.

In the aftermath, AFT and the Sheriff's Department spent months accusing each other.

Coffin starts with those facts, then goes into fiction: A few days after the fire, an ATF SWAT team member is murdered.

A few days after that, a sheriff's deputy is gunned down and suddenly it looks for all the world as if the two SWAT teams are launching an intra-departmental war.

It doesn't help that both murders were committed with the exact type of long guns the SWAT teams use.

That's when the LA Police Department, the only law enforcement bureau in LA that isn't involved in the squabble, is called in and the whole explosive mess lands in Scully's lap on direct orders from his wife, Alexa, who's also his superior officer.

The mayor's putting pressure on the police chief, the chief's putting pressure on Alexa and Alexa's putting pressure on Scully.

All this creates some ugly friction, what with Alexa's charge-right-in investigative style and Scully's methodical, painfully exacting approach to crime solving.

More ugly friction: Scully's temporary partner, a gorgeous lesbian with a dazzling smile and a ton of attitude, is on loan from the sheriff, doesn't think much of the LAPD and never has worked a homicide. But she has some definite ideas on how it should be done and isn't a bit shy about sharing them, usually with a smirk.

Cannell fans are going to love Coffin because it comes equipped with all the Cannell trademarks, plus a few quirks.

Written in first person

The biggest - and best - quirk is that it's the first Scully novel written in first person, a technique that allows the reader to burrow a little deeper into Scully's psyche.

What they find there is a lot of self-doubt, second thoughts about his career choice, rock-bottom self-esteem, a terrible fear of opening up and a growing terror that whatever he's doing, he could be doing better.

This is all masked by the air of supreme job confidence he projects to everyone but the reader.

But it's the Cannell trademarks that will sell the book: The extremely fast pace Cannell learned when producing 60-minute TV drama; the scriptwriter's ear for dialogue; the slavishly accurate picture of the inner workings of a SWAT team.

"I spent a lot of time talking to the guys in LA, about how they work, how they feel about their jobs, how they manage to keep their spirits up, given the kind of work they do.

"It's amazing how much they opened up to me. The book never would have worked without their help."

But it does work, from the first murder up through, well ... that would be telling too much.

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E-mail jknippenberg@enquirer.com